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F es me <br />A A- -� <br />CITY OF <br />SHORELINE <br />March 20, 2024 <br />The Honorable Pat McCarthy <br />Washington State Auditor <br />PO Box 40031 <br />Olympia, WA 98504 <br />Dear Ms. McCarthy: <br />SHORELINE CITY COUNCIL <br />Mayor Chris Roberts <br />Deputy Mayor Laura Mork <br />Councilmember Annette Ademasu <br />Councilmember Eben Pobee <br />Councilmember John Ramsdell <br />Councilmember Betsy Robertson <br />Councilmember Keith Scully <br />The City of Shoreline (City) appreciates the opportunity to respond to the Washington State <br />Auditor's Office (SAO) performance audit, "Growth Management Act: County and City <br />Compliance with the State's 120-day Permitting Requirement." We thank your team for their <br />thorough evaluation and recommendations. <br />The City's mission statement is "Fulfilling the community's vision through highly valued public <br />services." The permitting process is one of many public services we provide to our community, <br />and the timeliness and efficiency of the process are integral to the level of service we provide. <br />The performance audit highlighted several details and included six recommendations that apply <br />to the City. Below is the City's response to the audit and its recommendations. <br />Permit Complexity <br />The City appreciates the performance audit noting that available vacant land can be difficult to <br />build on and that regulations have grown more complex over the last few decades, while the 120- <br />day deadline has remained unchanged. The City would further note that in Shoreline's context <br />there is very little vacant land, and the majority of our development applications are <br />redevelopment of sites within areas the City has upzoned to encourage significant amounts of <br />new housing and development near regional transit such as the two light rail stations that will <br />open for service later this year. These planning efforts to get as many people and jobs as possible <br />near transit, we believe, advance citywide and regional goals toward housing and climate. Each <br />of these redevelopment sites contain unique challenges such as aging or undersized utility <br />infrastructure, stormwater management constraints, or vehicle access limitations that can add to <br />the overall review timeline. <br />Process Improvements <br />In January 2024 the City kicked -off a permit process improvement effort that will evaluate the <br />entire process using principles of continuous improvement. This effort will include hiring an <br />outside consultant to bring the necessary capacity and perspective to objectively identify process <br />bottlenecks and redundancies and to establish an implementation roadmap that will streamline <br />17500 Midvale Avenue N ♦ Shoreline, Washington 98133 <br />(206) 801-2700 ♦ shorelinewa.gov <br />Growth Management Act Agency Response 142 <br />